Culham Thesis Prize

Terms of referenceThe prize will be awarded annually to the candidate who has displayed excellence in the execution of the scientific method as witnessed by the award of Doctor of Philosophy in Plasma science from a UK or Irish university. The thesis content should exhibit significant new work and originality, clearly driven by the nominee, be well explained and demonstrate a good understanding of the subject. The prize consists of £500 in cash plus an expenses paid trip (to a maximum of £500 for travel) to the annual IOP plasma physics conference, where the recipient will be asked to give an invited talk. The prize is sponsored by CCFE and jointly coordinated by CCFE and the IOP Plasma Physics Group.

Eligibility

The thesis must have been submitted in the last two calendar years leading up to the nomination deadline

Nominees must be a member of the Institute of Physics

Non UK/Irish nationals are eligible but the PhD award must have been made at an Irish/UK university

In the event that no candidate satisfies the criteria for the prize, the prize will lapse

Previously unsuccessful theses may be re-submitted – please make this clear on the nomination

Proposers are encouraged to nominate only the highest quality pieces of work, with one nomination per proposer, noting there are no runner-up places for this prize

2010Ian Chapman, Imperial College LondonFor his thesis "Modelling the stability of the n=1 internal kink mode in tokamak plasmas"

2009Dr Ben Dudson, University of OxfordFor his thesis “Edge turbulence in the Mega-Amp spherical tokamak” dealing with the collection of data on edge turbulence and its analysis using novel statistical methods. These results were compared to computational simulations using BOUT, an edge turbulence code originating with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to which Dr Dudson contributed important improvements. He has made an important contribution to the understanding of edge turbulence, a topic of great importance to the understanding of tokamaks and the development of tokamak reactors, carrying out work of a depth and originality which the Prize judges found very impressive.

2008Dr Louise Willingale, Imperial College LondonFor significant experimental and numerical work on the acceleration of ions to high energies by laser-plasma interaction.

2007Dr Phil Nilson, Imperial College LondonFor Measurements of the Dynamics of Laser and Soft X-Ray Heated Targets by XUV and Optical Probing.